Harry Potter and the Quidditch Queen
by Scealai
Summary: The Muggle tradition of the Homecoming Queen hits Hogwarts. Who will be the first ever Quidditch Queen?


Harry Potter and The Quidditch Queen

Author: Scealai

Rating:  R for language and mature themes

Pairing: Harry/Hermione; takes place during their 6th year at Hogwarts

Summary: The Muggle tradition of the Homecoming Queen hits Hogwarts.  Who will be the first ever Quidditch Queen?

Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling created the characters from the Harry Potter books

Spoilers:  The events of all 5 books will be referred to.  EXTRA SPOILER WARNING!!!! THE ORDER OF PHOENIX IS                    SPOILED IN THIS FIC!!!!

Chapter One

The sky was a gorgeous azure blue dotted with the odd fluffy white cloud.  A slight breeze whispered through the air.  It was the perfect day to sit in the cool grass and read a good book.  The crowd around Hermione Granger gave a sudden loud roar and stood up as one.  Hermione looked up in time to see one of her best friends, Harry Potter, plunge his Firebolt broomstick into a daring dive – presumably chasing after the golden snitch.  Hermione closed her eyes tightly and listened as her fellow Gryffindors yelled encouragement.  She hoped Harry would catch it, because then not only would their house win the first match of the season, the game would be over.  Unfortunately, it was also a perfect day for Quidditch and since her other best friend and his sister, Ron and Ginny Weasley, had joined Harry on this year's team, Hermione had little choice but to attend.

Impossibly, the cheering got louder.  At George Weasley's, "Yah, Harry, way to go!" Hermione opened her eyes.  Harry stood in the middle of the Quidditch field, his black hair windswept and his glasses slightly askew on his nose.  He held his broom in one hand and the golden snitch held aloft in the other.  Hermione heaved a sigh of relief.   Harry hadn't gotten seriously hurt or killed.  She had been more worried about him during this game then she had been during the Triwizard Tournament.  It had become apparent very quickly that Harry intended to play as recklessly as possible.  He had zoomed around the pitch, taking risky dives with the snitch no where in sight just to bluff Hufflepuff's seeker.  Hermione was positive that her heart had stopped in terror several times.  This was not a good way for Harry to deal with Sirius' death and she was going to inform him of that fact once she was alone with him and Ron.  


  
"Come on, Hermione."  Fred Weasley, George's twin brother, hauled her to her feet.  He and George ushered down the stands and onto the field where they were blocked by the other Gryffindor students who had gotten there first.  Hermione hung back while Fred and George plunged into the crowd, their red heads joining those of Ron and Ginny.  The twins had actually left the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in spectacular fashion the year before and were now running a joke shop in Diagon Alley.  They had shown up at the game to support their younger brother and sister, as well as Harry, and to check out the new Gryffindor team.  Along with losing Fred and George as beaters, the Gryffindor team also lost Alicia Spinnet when she graduated.  Ginny had replaced her as chaser and Neville Longbottom had surprised everyone when he had turned out to be an excellent beater.  Hermione frowned.  Neville had taken Harry's cue and had played just as recklessly.  He had almost been knocked off his broom by one bludger while trying to hit the other at Hufflepuff's chaser.  She might have to include him in on the lecture she was preparing in her head for Harry.

"Great game, huh, Hermione?  Wasn't that catch Harry made incredible?" Lavender Brown came up beside Hermione.  She tossed her blonde ponytail over her shoulder and waved into the crowd - probably hoping that Harry would catch sight of her and wave back.

"Please, Lavender, you know Hermione would have rather been in the library reading a book."  Parvati Patil, Lavender's friend, smirked.  Both girls were in sixth year with Hermione and therefore her dorm mates.  She really had nothing in common with them, but they had tolerated each other for the past five years.  It wasn't until recently that Lavender and Parvati had suddenly decided to be jealous of Hermione's closeness to Harry, even though he was just her friend.  

"Hermione!" Harry broke through the mass of well-wishers.  He still had that silly golden ball clutched in his hand and his face glowed from his victory.  Hermione immediately dropped her plan to chastise him for scaring her to death.  It was great to see him so happy.  He grinned at her.  "Did you see that?"

"Don't be daft, Harry," Ron answered before Hermione could.  He clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder.  "Her eyes were closed, just like they always are when you dive after the snitch."  


  
"I thought you were supposed to watch the quaffle, not the spectators, Ron."  Hermione blushed.  She couldn't help worrying about Harry.  He had been so upset and defensive all of last year because no one would believe that Voldemort was back and then he had lost Sirus and had returned this year so sad.  She just wished there was something she could do to help him besides worry.  "You were great, Ron."  Hermione gave Ron a quick hug before she started crying like a girl.  "You too, Harry."  She let Harry enfold her in an enthusiastic hug that Ron joined in on, making her laugh.  The guys' euphoria was contagious and Hermione couldn't help but to grin at them.  She heard the envious sighs of Lavender and Parvati behind her, but she could have told them to save their breath.  They didn't want the relationship she had with Harry.  He was her best friend and girls like Lavender and Parvati didn't understand how special that kind of relationship was with a boy.  Hermione wouldn't give it up for anything.  She didn't know what she would have done if Harry and Ron hadn't saved her from that mountain troll their first year because that even had cemented their friendship.  Hermione untangled herself from the group hug.  "You know I can't watch when you're being a stupid prat.  Honestly, Harry, risking your life for a little gold ball!  And don't think that I didn't see it when you almost ran yourself into the hoop catching that quaffle, Ron Weasley."  


Instead of being offended by her words, Harry's grin widened and Ron laughed.  They were used to Hermione's scoldings by now and knew they came from her heart.  "Come on, lets go hang out in the common room before dinner."  Harry tucked Hermione's hand into the crook of his elbow and Ron did the same with her other one.

"Not so fast, boys, we need to borrow Hermione for a few minutes," Lavender tittered while Parvati giggled.  "We have a question about Muggle Studies," Lavender added before Hermione could protest.

The innate 'good student' that dwelled within Hermione would not allow her to refuse their request, so she reluctantly let go of Harry and Ron.  "Okay, I'll help.  I'll see you guys later in the Great Hall," she said with a sigh to her friends.  Harry nodded and squeezed her hand in sympathy before heading back to the school with Ron.

"So, what do you need help with?"  Hermione smiled, even though she didn't feel like it.  Sometimes being alone with Lavender and Parvati gave her a hideous headache.  She would just have to focus on the schoolwork.  It couldn't be too difficult to help them with Muggle studies.  "Shall we go to the library?"

"The answers we want aren't in the library, Herm."  Lavender rolled her eyes.  "Parvati and I were reading about the life of a teenage muggle and we were wondering if you could tell us more about the Homecoming Queen?"  

"We thought that since you are muggle-born, you would know all about it," Parvati added on cue.

"Homecoming Queen is an American muggle tradition.  Didn't the textbook say that?" Hermione gritted her teeth in disgust.  She started walking toward the school.  They hadn't detained her too long, she might be able to join Harry and Ron in a few games of Exploding Snap before dinner or maybe let Ron squash her at Wizard Chess.  She couldn't believe that she had actually thought that Lavender and Parvati had wanted her help with their homework.  As usual, all they wanted to do was giggle and titter about boys and talk about dances and dress robes.

"Yes, but muggles are muggles, right?" Parvati frowned.

"Except when they come from different countries and cultures."  Hermione caught the other girls' confused looks.  Honestly, they could be so silly – something she had hoped they would grow out of, but no luck so far.  Sure, they both came from wizarding families and didn't have a lot of experience with the muggle world, but wizards and witches came from different countries and cultures just like muggles and they also had different traditions.  "An American muggle is as different from an English muggle as an American witch is from an English witch."

"Okay, okay, fine." Parvati held up her hands to stall the forthcoming lecture.  "We get your point.  You don't know _anything _about being a Homecoming Queen."

"I didn't say that."  It was a point of honor to Hermione that she knew things.  Being accused of not knowing _anything _about a subject was tantamount to, well, being a giggly girl like Lavender and Parvati.  "I have an American cousin.  She was Homecoming Queen at her school last year."

"Really!" Lavender and Parvati squealed.  Lavender continued - once the high-pitched shrieking stopped - with, "Did she have to wear a swimsuit in the swimsuit competition and, ooo, what was her talent?  Did she spin one of those batons?" 

  
"No, that's the Miss America pageant."

"Did she have to host teas with the President?  Was she in a parade?  I bet there were diamonds in her crown."  Parvati sighed, not dissuaded by Hermione's correction of their impression of what exactly a Homecoming Queen was.

"She's not an actual Queen." Hermione decided to burst this bubble real quick.  The last thing she needed was to be pestered all year by girls coming up to her to ask about her cousin, the Homecoming Queen, because she highly doubted that Lavender and Parvati would keep this thing to themselves.  "She got a plastic tiara with paste-on jewels and a trophy."  Finished with this nonsense, Hermione started walking toward the school.

"But there was a dance right, with dress robes?  The textbook said there was a Homecoming Dance." Lavender caught Hermione's arm and brought her to a stop.  "Just tell us how it works, Herm, and then we wont bug you about it again."

"There is a dance and a parade, but the parade comes first before the football game…."

"The what?" Lavender frowned.

"The football game, its a game that American muggles play like we play Quidditch." Hermione shivered as a small chill of dread raced down her spine at the crafty light that entered the two other girls' eyes.  "Anyway, first there are nominations, I think, where the other students nominate who they want as queen.  Then the nominees put up posters and bake things to get other students to vote for them.  Then there is a parade where all the nominees ride on these big floats.  The Homecoming Queen is announced at the football game at half time, that's a break halfway through the game, and then that night there's a dance."  Hermione bit her lip.  "I think that's how it goes.  My cousin, April, said it was a popularity contest."

"That's the best kind." Lavender arched her eyebrows as if astonished at Hermione's ignorance of the world.  She linked arms with Parvati and they left Hermione standing alone on the grounds.  Hermione watched them head back to the school, their heads bent together conspiratorially.  That couldn't be good.  Whatever they were cooking up, she was glad that her part in it was over.

* * * * *

 The thrill of victory still warmed Harry's heart, but the rush of adrenaline had left.  He hadn't felt this good in ages.  He wasn't worrying about Voldemort or feeling guilty and mourning Sirus.  Instead he felt carefree and happy.  He had realized something during the game.  He had caught sight of the snitch high above the Hufflepuff's hoops, but hadn't wanted the game to end and have to leave the pitch and pretend to be happy.  He had turned sharply and dove straight for the ground, the Hufflepuff's seeker immediately following him.  As the ground approached faster and faster he had realized that this was what life was about.  It was what Sirus had been trying to tell him.  Life was about taking risks and having fun.  It wasn't about a stupid prophecy that had gotten every person who loved him killed.  Harry had pulled up from the dive at the last minute vowing to continue the Marauders' legacy.  This year was going to be about having fun with his friends, not Voldemort.  Harry sighed with satisfaction as he remembered his resolution.  He and Ron had flopped into two comfy armchairs as soon as they had entered the Gryffindor common room and neither of them had moved since.    


  
Ron's head lolled to the side to look over at Harry.  "We could play a game of Wizard Chess," he suggested, but didn't get up to go get his new board.

"Nah."

"Exploding Snap?"

"Nah."

"Homework?"

"Sure, lets do that." Harry and Ron grinned at each other.  Still, neither of them moved.  Their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Rose Navarre, was fond of 'surprise' pop quizzes.  She gave them every other Monday.  Hermione usually helped them, or rather prodded and nagged them, to study on Sunday evenings.  She would probably die of shock if they actually did it themselves.  The sound of the portrait hole opening prompted Harry to move his head.  He frowned when Parvati and Lavender walked into the common room.

"That would be cool, we should write some of this down.  You know, to be organized."

Lavender nodded her head at Parvati's suggestion.  "Who do you think we should ask?  Professor Lochlan?"  


  
"He is our Muggle Studies professor and this could be our project for the year instead of writing an essay."  


"Where's Hermione?" Harry blurted out without thinking.  He regretted it the moment Lavender and Parvati turned knowing looks his way.

"How should we know?  She's your _friend_." Lavender raised her eyebrows to show her disbelief of that description of Harry's relationship with Hermione.  Ever since the Rita Skeeter articles in their fourth year that had proclaimed that he and Hermione were romantically involved, the other girls at Hogwarts had regarded their friendship with blatant suspicion.  Last year everyone had been concerned with deciding whether or not Harry was crazy or an attention seeking fool for claiming that Voldemort had returned, but this year his love life was back on the gossip track.  Thanks to Cho, his Ravenclaw girlfriend for all of one date, the rumors of a relationship between he and Hermione had been reborn.  Cho told anyone who would listen that Harry's attachment to Hermione had ruined any chance they would have had together.  Now everything he did with Hermione was carefully scrutinized by their peers.  Did they sit closer together?  Touch more often?  Unfortunately, Hermione caught the brunt of the skepticism and outright jealousy.  She, of course, had taken the sly glances and jabs thrown her way gracefully – barely acknowledging them.  

"Because we left her with you."  Ron scowled.  He had been less graceful about the situation.  He tended to get a bit blustery in his defense of his friends' reputations.  He didn't like people insinuating that Harry and Hermione were a couple.  He had his own confused feelings about Hermione to consider as well as the fact that if they were to be a couple then he would be left out. He knew that nothing was going on between his friends, but still with all the talk it might give them some ideas.  He didn't want Harry to get any romantic ideas about Hermione while he hadn't figured out if he had any of his own.  He didn't need to be jealous of Harry about that on top of everything else.  "You needed help with Muggle Studies.  Remember?"

"Oh, yeah."  Parvati sniffed in disdain.  "We asked a question, she answered it.  We're not her baby-sitters, boys, that's your job."  She had a particular grudge against them and Hermione by association.  She had attended the Yule Ball with Harry and her twin sister, Padma, had been Ron's date.  Harry had still been infatuated with Cho and had virtually ignored Parvati the whole evening.  Ron had been too preoccupied with being jealous over Hermione showing up with Viktor Krum the famous Quidditch seeker to barely even acknowledge Padma.  Neither sister had gotten over it even though it had happened almost two years ago.

"Let's go, Parvati." Lavender patted her friend's arm in sympathy.  "We have things to do.  I want to talk to Professor Lochlan after dinner and we need to have everything worked out by then."

"What about Hermione!"  Ron stood up and glared at the girls.  He hadn't liked the things that Padma had said about him after their 'date' or the things that she had said about Hermione.  Now Cho was saying the same things, only about Hermione and Harry.  In the last couple of years, poor Hermione had to endure the rumors of either being his girlfriend or Harry's.  The worse ones were that she was playing one against the other – dating Ron to make Harry jealous - and Ron was sick of it.   

"She's probably in the library," Lavender called back to them as she and Parvati walked upstairs to the girl's dormitory.  
  
"Silly, fluff-for-brains....would probably forget their heads if the cosmetic charms didn't glow like a beacon," Ron mumbled, clenching his fists.  


"She probably is in the library, Ron."  Harry didn't like how the other girls treated Hermione either, but getting visibly upset about it only made it worse.  "She did want to read today instead of watch me chase around that 'silly gold ball' all afternoon."  He smiled as he thought about Hermione's put upon sigh that morning at breakfast.  He knew she didn't care for Quidditch, but had to come to the games mainly to make sure that he didn't get hurt or killed.  Since she had saved his life during two past matches, Harry didn't complain about her concern.  In fact, he kind of liked it.    


  
"I was in the game today too, Harry, and so were Ginny and Neville," Ron reminded his friend stiffly.  He definitely didn't like the look in Harry's eyes - all soft and wistful.  This was exactly what he was afraid of - Harry and Hermione focussing on each other and forgetting about him.  "Hermione showed up to watch all of us."  


  
"Of course,"  Harry agreed.  He hauled himself out of his chair and headed to the portrait hole.  He wasn't going to let Ron's moods upset him.  He was finally happy and nothing was going to come between him and his friends.  "Let's go track her down and drag her to the Great Hall.  I'm starving."  


"Yeah, me too."  Ron relaxed.  He shouldn't have doubted Harry.  They had been best mates since the day they met, Harry would never forget about him.  And the thought that Harry and Hermione would actually become a couple was ludicrous.  Ron followed Harry and crawled out through the open portrait hole into the hallway.  "I wonder what it is tonight.  The house elves have been serving some weird dishes lately."  


  


"Like the Every Flavor Bean Salad and Duck a la Pumpkin Juice?"  


  
"It's called being experimental and creative.  Just like any normal being is allowed to be."  The annoyed sharp tone Ron and Harry heard from behind them was their first clue that Hermione was not in the library.  "You should be thankful that the house elves are here to put food on the table and since you don't _pay_ them for their services you shouldn't be complaining."

"I'm not.  At least not within your earshot."  Ron gave Hermione his irresistible lopsided grin.  She rolled her eyes, but smiled back.  They continued on their way down the Tower as they had a million times before.  The Unbeatable Trio.  Friends forever.  


  


* * * * *  
  
It was a disgusting display.  Draco scowled as Potter laughed at something the Weasel said.  It was repulsive to watch Potter celebrating when he was responsible for the ruination of the Malfoy name.  Draco's lips curled in a snarl as he thought of his father.  The man had been a fool to openly support Voldemort so early in the game and then to get himself caught by Potter. Lucius Malfoy was a disgrace thanks to the God damn Golden Boy of Gryffindor.  He and his cronies deserved the Cruciatus Curse a hundred times in a row for humiliating his family.  His mother barely left the Manor anymore and she hadn't wanted him to come back to Hogwarts, but Draco wasn't going to let Potter run him out of town.  Draco's eyes narrowed as Potter poured Granger a glass of pumpkin juice.  Pansy and Millicent had been yapping something about them earlier in the Slytherin common room - Pansy had insisted that Potter and Granger were and item and Millicent was convinced that it was Granger and the Weasel.    
  
"Draco, where are you going?"  Pansy clutched at Draco's arm as he stood up.  Ever since he had decided that going out with her would salvage a bit of his reputation - the Parkinson's were a prominant family that hadn't been exposed as Deatheaters yet - she had become even more clingy and unbearable.   
  
"Away from here."  Draco shook Pansy off.  Potter and Granger were walking out of the Great Hall, leaving Weasley to finish shoveling food into that cavernous hole he called a mouth.  Draco followed them.  He had to get some dirt on Potter and if the mudblood was involved, it would be even better.  She was an insufferable know-it-all who needed to be knocked back into the filth she came from.  He watched Potter pull Hermione back as the staircase she was about to step up onto suddenly swung away from them.  "I see you've finally got the right idea, Potter," Draco drawled.  He waited for them to turn and face him.  He was faintly amused to note that Potter's arm remained around Granger's waist.  They both looked wary.  Draco let his gaze slide  
over Granger slowly, making sure to pause significantly at her breasts.  She did have a pretty fine rack, a nice ass, long legs. Pity she was mudblood.  He didn't bother to looking Granger in the eye, but met Potter's raging glare with a smirk.  "A mudblood's only use is on her back with her legs...."  
  
"Fucking bastard!"  Harry stepped forward with every intention of thrashing Malfoy - a curse wouldn't have been as satisfying as kicking his ass - but Hermione caught his arm.  "Let go, Hermione, he can't talk about you that way."  
  
"I can say anything I like, Potter.  Thanks to you, it's still a few world for mudbloods and purebloods alike."  
  
"He's right, Harry."  Hermione moved in front of Harry.  "He can say anything...and so can I.  It's a pity that the Dementors have left Azkaban and the current prisoners aren't able to appreciate the full experience."  She paused and looked at Malfoy.  "How is your father, Malfoy?"  
  
"Bitch."  Draco had never wanted to curse anyone as much as he wanted to curse Granger, but Potter had pushed her back behind him again.  It was just as well, he had been on the receiving end of too many of their hexes before to chance it now when he was alone in the hallway.  Instead, Draco turned and stalked away.  Granger would regret mocking him.  He would make sure that she was the one everyone laughed and jeered at and there would be nothing Potter could do about it.  
  
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A/N:  Well, that's the end of the first chapter of my very first Harry Potter fic.  I hope that everyone likes it, I know that I'm enjoying writing it.  


  


  


  
  
  



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